2012 Savannah St. Patrick's Day largest in the world

2012 Savannah St. Patrick's Day could be largest in the world
Move over, New York City. Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is marching through.

With record crowds expected this year, the parade could surpass New York City’s in its number of units and participants. That would make it the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the world.

“For years and years, it’s always been said that New York’s was the largest,” says parade committee general chairman Michael A. Foran. “At first, I thought that meant per capita, but it’s actually units.

“According to the estimates I’m hearing, a million people will be in town over the weekend,” he says. “We’ve got several livestreams on the Internet with a viewership of 10 million.

“Our website is getting 10,000 hits a day,” Foran says. “It’s just blowing up. We can’t keep up with the emails.”

Stay up-to-date on everything related to St. Patrick's Day in Savannah on your mobile device: stpatricksday.savannahnow.com and your desktop at savannahnow.com/stpatricksday.

The phone in the parade committee office never stops ringing. “We get the craziest questions,” Foran says. “People call and want to know what weekend to come.”

The parade in New York, which always takes place the Saturday closest to St. Patrick’s Day, is strictly for entertainment.

Not in Savannah.

“This is a religious observance day for us,” Foran says. “We start with Mass at 8 a.m.,” he says. “If the holiday falls on Sunday, the bishop pushes it back to Saturday, which will happen next year.”

This year’s weekend date means more people can march in the parade.

“There’s going to be a record number of participants and bands,” Foran says. “We’ve got 60-plus bands and about 15,000 people marching in the parade.”
 
San Antonio used to have a neat St. Paddy's Day Parade; as those who studied about Texas history, quite a number of Irishmen perished in the Alamo.

My dear sainted Irish mother (100% Irish blood) even joined the Harp & Shamrock Society here and took me to one of their shindigs, probably to find me a nice Irish girl.

Anyway, the local paper mentioned there will not be a St. Patricks' Day Parade here this year because the City has instituted a fairly steep fee for police, insurance, etc. ... a fee that is waived for a number of other parades, including Fiesta, Martin Luther King, and various Hispanic festivals ..

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/news_c ... 407986.php
 
I was stationed at Hunter AAF in Savannah for two and a half years, and I will say that the St. Patrick's Day Parade there is incredible. We were able to go twice and both times the crowds were ridiculous, but we had a blast. A trip to river street is in order after watching the parade, but don't pee in the river.
 
Little Khow Facts About Savannah

The local cab companies, have a rule: If you throw up in a Savannah taxi on St. Patrick's Day, you'll be charged a cleanup fee of $75 to $150.
 
Savannah now has two World Records for the Year:

1) The Tybee Post Theater has officially broken the World Record for the "Largest Gathering of People Wearing Swim Caps!" The record was broken on January 1, 2012 on Tybee Island, GA with 2,049 people!
*** I was there ***

2) Over one million people for the Saint Patricks day parade and festivities.
*** I have stayed away from there since going my first time in 1996 ***
 
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